Louise Lelah
To appreciate why people like Louise came to Fairfax one must first understand how Fairfax developed a Jewish reputation. Around the same time Louise was growing up in Singapore, the Fairfax neighborhood was developing as a Jewish communal hub, characterized by a high density of Jewish residents and numerous Jewish storefronts, delis, markets, and synagogues. This reputation attracted domestic and international Jewish newcomers.
Following World War II many Jews who survived the Holocaust fled Europe and settled in Los Angeles. Later in the 1970s Russian Immigrants, Orthodox Jews, and Israelis repopulated the neighborhood and gave it a new vitality. Since Louise moved to Fairfax in 1976 she joined this particular influx of new residents.
Louise was born in Singapore in 1924 to Iraqi parents and was raised in a small tight-knit Jewish community. She experienced a sudden life change at the age of 18, when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Singapore. When the military forces of the Empire of Japan began their occupation of Singapore in 1942, they mimicked German policy towards Jews and forced Jews to wear armbands that labeled them as “enemies”. A year later, in 1943, the Japanese military took Louise, her mother, and her sisters to Sime Road Camp where they were held for two years.
The British liberated Singapore in 1945 and Louise and her family left the internment camps. Unlike many survivors from Europe, Louise did not leave immediately after her liberation. For almost 20 years, she remained in Singapore where she married her husband Harry Lelah and worked as a librarian. So when she, her husband, and their son chose to leave Singapore it was not to flee from an anti-Semitic environment or an oppressive regime. In this aspect Louise’s story bears a resemblance to Israelis who came to Los Angeles. When Singapore became independent in 1965, it modeled its armed forces on the Israeli model: the Lelah family chose to leave Singapore because they felt that the conscription policy could negatively affect their family.
Louise and her family were able to contact her sister, who applied for their visas. By 1976 Louise, Harry and Abraham settled into a home in Fairfax. She began working at the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center where she later became a librarian. After her husband’s death, she joined various community organizations, including the Freda Mohr Center.